Posted on 01/15/2024 1:17:40 PM PST by Libloather
Aeronautic officials debuted a new quiet supersonic plane capable of flying faster than the speed of sound and getting from New York to London in three and a half hours.
The 100-foot long 30-foot wide X-59 supersonic aircraft, dubbed “son of Concorde,” was rolled out by NASA and Lockheed Martin on Friday, an innovation officials said they expected to revamp commercial air travel.
The Concorde aircraft, which could travel some 1,350 miles per hour, was retired some 20 years ago after launching in 1976, plagued by costly maintenance and a fatal 2000 crash.
Its new progeny can travel 925 miles per hour while generating a less disruptive sonic boom to communities below due to innovations in design, shaping and technologies, officials said.
Over the past half-century, the US and other nations have banned supersonic flights because of the startling booms created when planes exceed the speed of sound, which is 767 miles per hour, NASA noted in a press release.
The plane’s thin tapered nose was expected to break up shock waves that would cause a sonic boom on a conventional aircraft, and its cockpit is located about halfway down the length of the plane, meaning pilots would have to rely on camera monitors to operate it.
The X-59 is part of NASA’s Quesst mission, which is aimed at “providing data to help regulators reconsider” the ban.
“This is a major accomplishment made possible only through the hard work and ingenuity from NASA and the entire X-59 team,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.
“In just a few short years we’ve gone from an ambitious concept to reality. NASA’s X-59 will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer together in much less time.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Seriously ... does anybody at NASA actually call it that?
The SR71 sits on a museum floor obeying the law of gravity ...
Back when it did fly, it also created a huge sonic boom. And that brings to the X-59. “X” as in eXperimental ... the experiment here is to develop “boomless” supersonic flight.
What part of eXperimental do you not understand?
Yeah ... becoming a TEST PILOT for an eXperimental aircraft is very expensive.
A wondrous bird is a pelican
His bill can hold more than his belly can
He can hold is in his beak
enough food for a week
but I’ll be damned if I know how the hell he can
That pic ain’t real diverse, just sayin’.
But will it create deadly holes in the ozone layer like the media claimed the Concord did?
I have that album on vinyl, which should give an idea of how long I’ve had it.
3 and a half hours? Its about a 5 hour flight now. That’s not much of a time savings.
Or the Binary of the Concord
More like a douce nozzle
“The SR71 does it in less than an hour.”
Nope.
Or the Binary of the Concord
= = =
Now you are asking for clogged exhausts.
Fair point!
There will be spandex jackets, one for everyone...
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